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Updating the Inventory of Zanzibar Leopard Specimens
by M. T. Walsh and H. V. Goldman

The Zanzibar leopard Panthera pardus adersi was once widespread on the Indian Ocean island of Unguja (Zanzibar, Tanzania), but most authorities now consider it to be extinct, or very nearly so. This little-known endemic has never been studied in the wild, and our knowledge of it therefore rests largely on historical and ethnographic reports and the physical evidence of museum specimens.

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First Pallas’s Cat Photo-trapped in Khojir National Park, Iran
by M. Chalani, A. Ghoddousi, T. Ghadirian and R. Goljani

As part of a camera-trapping survey for the identification of felid species in Khojir National Park, Iran, a manul or Pallas’s cat Otocolobus manul was photographed on 6 February 2008 for the first time. There being only a few reports of this secretive cat in Iran, this new locality is very interesting with regard to its national range.

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First Record of Pallas’s Cat in Northwest Iran

by A. Agili, R. Masoud, J. D. Murdoch and D. P. Mallon

Pallas’s cat Otocolobus manul is a wide-ranging small cat that occurs throughout northern and central Asia. Although populations are relatively robust in some areas like Mongolia, little information exists on populations elsewhere, particularly in the southern portion of the species’ range. Consequently, the distribution limits of the species are largely speculative and often inferred from the distribution of potentially suitable habitats.

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The Status of the Persian Leopard in Bamu National Park, Iran

by A. Ghoddousi, A. H. Kh. Hamidi, T. Ghadirian, D. Ashayeri, H. Moshiri and I. Khorozyan

The Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor is the largest member of eight felid species surviving today in Iran, after the extinction of the Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica and the Caspian tiger Panthera tigris virgata in the past 70 years. The stronghold of this endangered subspecies is Iran. Over the past 25 years the Persian leopard was exterminated in many areas of its global range and in the others its numbers have plummeted. Bamu National Park (BNP) has long been one of the best habitats for the subspecies in southern Iran, but leopards there face severe threats nowadays.

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Is Food Availability a Reliable Indicator of Cheetah Presence in Iran?

by M. S. Farhadinia, A. Jourabchian, M. Eslami, F. Hosseini and B. Nezami  

It has been widely believed that the Asiatic cheetah occurs wherever gazelles exist. However, most of the present cheetah main habitat in Iran has a low density of gazelles, although there are neighbouring high-density gazelle areas without cheetahs. We found that cover has been usually ignored as an essential need for its hunting success and thus its survival. We propose to conduct more surveys in habitats which provide both food and cover to cheetahs.

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Cheetahs in Afghanistan

by A. R. Manati and G. Nogge 

The Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus (Schreber 1776) once ranged from the Arabian Peninsula to India. Today not more than 100 cheetahs seem to have survived in the deserts of Iran (Farhadinia 2004). In Afghanistan the cheetah is considered to have been extinct since the 1950s.

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Monitored Release of Leopard Cats in the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest, Cambodia
by N. Marx 

Two adult leopard cats Prionailurus bengalensis and two dependent kittens were released from an enclosure within Phnom Tamao Protected Forest. The adults had been in captivity for a substantial period of time. They were radio collared and tracked for three months. Food was provided daily. The male proved difficult to follow but appeared sporadically. The female was easier to locate, perhaps because her kittens limited her movements. Once familiar with the area she could usually be found near water. After an initial period of dependence neither cat seemed to experience difficulties, preferring to catch their own food.

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The Use of Remote Camera Traps to Estimate Density of Free-ranging Cheetahs in North-Central Namibia
by L. Marker, E. Fabiano and M. Nghikembua 

Remote camera trapping RCT, although successfully used to estimate abundance on other species such as the tiger and jaguar in Bolivia, has not been fully explored for cheetahs. Apart from Marnewick et al. (2008), who investigated the use of the technique for estimating abundance, no other study was found in literature that explored the feasibility of the technique for estimating both abundance and density. This study is therefore the first of its kind, as it addresses the feasibility of using RCT within the capture-recapture CR framework.

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Update on the Iberian Lynx Ex-situ Conservation Program
by A. Vargas, I. Sánchez, A.Rivas, F. Martínez, J. A. Godoy, E. Roldán, R. Serra and M. J. Pérez, M. A. Simón, M. Delibes and M. Aymerich

The Iberian Lynx Conservation Breeding Program follows a multidisciplinary approach, integrated within the National Strategy for the Conservation of the Iberian lynx, which is carried out in cooperation with national, regional, and international institutions.

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Sighting of a Rusty-spotted Cat in the Varushanad Valley, India
by R. Pillay 

A solitary rusty-spotted cat Prionailurus rubiginosus was sighted in a dry deciduous habitat of the Varushanad valley (9° 40’ 3.72”N/77° 25’ 44.15”E) in Tamil Nadu, India on 6 June 2008. The Varushanad valley is located in the southern Western Ghats, an ecological subunit of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot.

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First Report on the Geoffroy’s Cat in a Highly Modified Rural Area of the Argentine Pampas

by D. F. Castillo, E. M. Luengos Vidal, M. Lucherini and E. B. Casanave 

Although the ecological data obtained from protected areas showed a certain degree of flexibility in the Geoffroy’s cat Leopardus geoffroyi foraging and spatial behaviour, no information has been published about this species in highly modified rural areas. We report here the first data about the Geoffroy’s cat from an unprotected farming area in the Pampas of central Argentina.

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Human-Puma Conflicts in Three Areas from the Southern Cone of South America: Preliminary Data

by M. Lucherini, L. Ríos, C. Manfredi, M. J. Merino and J. Arellano      

Of the two large species of felids occurring in the Neotropical Region, the puma Puma concolor is by far the most widespread and common. Nevertheless, its populations are declining in many areas and hunting is one of the most frequent causes of this decrease. This paper presents the preliminary results of an interview-based assessment of human-puma conflicts in three areas of Argentina and Chile located in very different ecoregions.

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First Official Record of Human Killed by Jaguar in Brazil
by R. C. de Paula, M. F. Campos Neto and R. G. Morato

Large felids are not commonly known worldwide as predators of humans, although such cases are sometimes reported in African and Asian countries. However, once habituation to human presence and activities increases, the possibility of aggressive confrontation rises proportionally. Deadly conflicts thus become more probable and coexistence between predators and humans is jeopardized. On the American continent, pumas Puma concolor are well known as attackers of humans, as shown by several lethal attacks. Although attacks by jaguars Panthera onca have been recorded in several areas (CENAP, unpubl. data), they were all provoked and most of them were caused by an animal cornered during hunting; man-eating jaguars have never been reported throughout their range. This report presents a unique case of a predatory attack by a jaguar in the Pantanal, Mato Grosso State (western Brazil) that happened in June 2008.

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A High-elevation Report of Oncilla in Mesoamerica
by J. F. González-Maya and J. Schipper

We report a high elevation record of the Central American oncilla.

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